#1
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Manned vs unmanned
I'm not sure if this is the right news group to help with this question.
I had an argument with a friend the other day about whether its cheaper to send a probe to mars than it is to send humans. I say its cheaper by a long shot to sent probes (ie robots) rather than astronauts to do space missions. He feels that its the opposite and that NASA is reluctant to send anyone to Mars for fear of failure and killing humans (i.e. a public relations disaster). So we figured we need to specify a particular mission to help narrow things down. Mission: Lets say NASA wants to get some rock samples from Mars to bring back to Earth and that the rocks will be collected from an area 1 km by 1 km. Scenario 1 - Probe/robot: Lets say the cost for sending the probe not only involves those associated with the actually transportation and space craft design, but also the cost of developing, manufacturing and maybe possibly requiring two missions if the first fails. There may be some other costs I might be forgetting though. Scenario 2 - Human: Other than `standard' training and salary for the astronaut (which I imagine is minimal wrt to all other costs), space craft design, life support. As well, there could be other costs I'm forgetting. Question: which is more economical in dollars, scenario 1 or scenario 2? |
#2
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Manned vs unmanned
"Doug Angus" wrote in message
... I'm not sure if this is the right news group to help with this question. I had an argument with a friend the other day about whether its cheaper to send a probe to mars than it is to send humans. I say its cheaper by a long shot to sent probes (ie robots) rather than astronauts to do space missions. He feels that its the opposite and that NASA is reluctant to send anyone to Mars for fear of failure and killing humans (i.e. a public relations disaster). So we figured we need to specify a particular mission to help narrow things down. Mission: Lets say NASA wants to get some rock samples from Mars to bring back to Earth and that the rocks will be collected from an area 1 km by 1 km. Scenario 1 - Probe/robot: Lets say the cost for sending the probe not only involves those associated with the actually transportation and space craft design, but also the cost of developing, manufacturing and maybe possibly requiring two missions if the first fails. There may be some other costs I might be forgetting though. Scenario 2 - Human: Other than `standard' training and salary for the astronaut (which I imagine is minimal wrt to all other costs), space craft design, life support. As well, there could be other costs I'm forgetting. Question: which is more economical in dollars, scenario 1 or scenario 2? I'm not an expert in the costs associated with such a program but consider this. The cost of sending humans will be relatively high not so much because of their direct costings so much as the design and mission choices that would be influenced by the fact that humans are on the mission. 1 - The actual craft will have overhead associated with humans such as consumables (food, energy for lifesupport and comfort, design changes for life support, additional gear to allow for humans such as space suits, buggies, additional facilities such as galley and lavatory) while an unmanned probe need not have such facilities. 2 - There will be costs associated with boosting all of the additional gear into orbit then into an earth-mars transfer orbit that will not be incurred for an unmanned mission. Such cost is not inconsiderable. Compare what was required to send the surveyor probes to the Moon vs sending the Apollo missions. I think it is arguable one could send several probes for every single apollo mission that went. 3 - There are PR considerations for and against. It is easier to get people excited about interplanetary exploration when there is a human element however they also blanch when they see the price to do so. Space probes on the other hand still cost a lot but less than human exploration but they lack as much human element. |
#3
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Manned vs unmanned
Doug Angus wrote:
I'm not sure if this is the right news group to help with this question. I had an argument with a friend the other day about whether its cheaper to send a probe to mars than it is to send humans. I say its cheaper by a long shot to sent probes (ie robots) rather than astronauts to do space missions. He feels that its the opposite and that NASA is reluctant to send anyone to Mars for fear of failure and killing humans (i.e. a public relations disaster). So we figured we need to specify a particular mission to help narrow things down. Mission: Lets say NASA wants to get some rock samples from Mars to bring back to Earth and that the rocks will be collected from an area 1 km by 1 km. Scenario 1 - Probe/robot: Lets say the cost for sending the probe not only involves those associated with the actually transportation and space craft design, but also the cost of developing, manufacturing and maybe possibly requiring two missions if the first fails. There may be some other costs I might be forgetting though. Scenario 2 - Human: Other than `standard' training and salary for the astronaut (which I imagine is minimal wrt to all other costs), space craft design, life support. As well, there could be other costs I'm forgetting. Question: which is more economical in dollars, scenario 1 or scenario 2? Consider this.. How and why would we ever send people there without first being able to conduct a sample return mission? If we cant launch a few rocks off the surface theres not much hope of getting 1-3 humans much farther Think of all the things that will have to happen in order to allow humans to safely land and return. First off, on earth we have all the engineers, launch pads, rocket fuel, etc needed to get us there. On mars there is not much in the way of support to help get back off the surface (as far as i know).. In order to even land people there we will first have to launch a lot of support gear beforehand and either have it in orbit around mars , waiting for the final human cargo or have it land and hope it lands on target so the human explorers (assuming they land and survive) wont have to travel 50 mi just to get a shipment of life support cargo like food or water. The human trip to mars will most definatley cost at least twice (probabally way more than that) as much as any non-manned rover package. Richie |
#4
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Manned vs unmanned
If they sent a probe instead of Lewis and Clark, not much would have been
know about the trip. "Doug Angus" wrote in message ... I'm not sure if this is the right news group to help with this question. I had an argument with a friend the other day about whether its cheaper to send a probe to mars than it is to send humans. I say its cheaper by a long shot to sent probes (ie robots) rather than astronauts to do space missions. He feels that its the opposite and that NASA is reluctant to send anyone to Mars for fear of failure and killing humans (i.e. a public relations disaster). So we figured we need to specify a particular mission to help narrow things down. Mission: Lets say NASA wants to get some rock samples from Mars to bring back to Earth and that the rocks will be collected from an area 1 km by 1 km. Scenario 1 - Probe/robot: Lets say the cost for sending the probe not only involves those associated with the actually transportation and space craft design, but also the cost of developing, manufacturing and maybe possibly requiring two missions if the first fails. There may be some other costs I might be forgetting though. Scenario 2 - Human: Other than `standard' training and salary for the astronaut (which I imagine is minimal wrt to all other costs), space craft design, life support. As well, there could be other costs I'm forgetting. Question: which is more economical in dollars, scenario 1 or scenario 2? --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.592 / Virus Database: 375 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 |
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